Quito, Ecuador
28/05/2023
The next morning we woke up around 8am local time and had some freshly prepared breakfast at the hotel. We then got ready for a full day of exploring Quito.
It was raining, but we did not let that stop us from walking around. Our first stop was the church Basílica del Voto Nacional, which was only a few minutes from the hotel by foot.
The church was quite an interesting visit. While the inside shared resemblance with most other churches, we were able to walk around the rooftop, which usually is not something visitors are allowed to do.
To be fair, I don’t think we were allowed to walk around there either, but there were no signs or rails preventing us from doing so, and the doors were open, so off we went. It was quite cool as we got a full 360° impression of Quito and its surrounding area. As such, we spent over an hour there.
By the time we had seen everything, the rain had faded a bit and we were ready to experience the streets of Quito. The area featured numerous colonial-era houses that made quite the impression, as well as some unique details like the door you can see below.
With some stops along the way, we strolled southbound until we reached a street full of graffiti, which appeared as a kind of cut through the cityscape. While walking Quito at daytime is relatively safe as a group, we did not want to end up too far in a dodgy neighbourhood, so this was our point of return.
We thus took taxis to the city’s cablecar, the Teleférico, which took us up the hill to almost 4.000m of above sea level. From there it was only a little more walking to get towards the peak at 4.100m. The mountain was a great observation point, despite the occasional cloud blocking the view entirely. However, this was not a worry and we took some awesome portraits in the mystical mountainscape.
We enjoyed walking the area quite a lot, but unfortunately the lower oxygen concentration did cause some dizziness and headache for some of us, so we decided to take the cablecar down again.
We then went back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. While some of us decided to stay there and get some sleep, I was quite hungry, so I joined in going out. We made our way to an Italian restaurant, though as you might imagine it was a little different to Italy. Nonetheless, we spent a nice evening together.
Shortly thereafter we got back to the hotel as we had quite the trip planned for the next day.
¡Hasta luego!